Rain in Due Season

I think I've discovered the cure to most of the ills that are paralyzing this world, but I'll get to that in just a second.

Yesterday, as I sat in sacrament meeting, I listened to the speakers talk about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. It was a great meeting, but as I listened to the three speakers, all of whom referenced the same quotes and some of the same scriptures, I found myself wondering how many times I'd heard that particular topic spoken of in sacrament meeting or in Sunday School in my lifetime. Hundreds? Thousands maybe?

Then one of them quoted the 26th chapter of Leviticus.

Now, for those of you who don't know, one of my "hobbies", if you want to call it that, is memorizing scriptures. It just so happens that he was quoting verses 3 through 6, which I have studied relatively recently. The thing that struck me, though, was that he also added the second verse, which I have not yet memorized and which added a lot of new context to what I had already contemplated. Let me quote all of those verses for you.

2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

Let me go back and start at verse 4. There, the Lord promises that He will give us rain when we need it, fruits and vegetables from the ground and from the trees. In verse 5 He says that our harvest will last until we harvest again and we will have plenty to eat. Finally, in verse 6 He says that He will give us peace, we'll be able to sleep safely, and we won't have to go to war.

Pretty good blessings, if you ask me.

And what do we have to do to get them?

The answer lies in verses 2 and 3. Keep the Sabbath Day holy, go to the temple, keep the commandments.

But, (and this is a big but) I'd also venture to say, without fear of reprisal, that the opposite of those verses is true, too. If we do NOT do these things, the Lord will NOT give us those blessings.

Frankly, I think we're in great need of every single one of those blessings right now.

Just look at some of the things going on in this country, and for that matter, in this world.

- Record-breaking drought in the United States
- People getting killed while watching a movie in Denver
- Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
- Twenty-five million people out of work in the US
- The Euro at the brink of collapse
- Famine in Niger and Somalia
- Earthquake in Indonesia
- Wildfires in California, Idaho and Washington
- Civil war in Syria
- Nuclear proliferation in Iran

Do I really need to go on?

Back in ancient days, the Sabbath was a serious thing. No businesses were open, there were laws that governed its observance, and if someone violated the Sabbath, they were stoned. Today the Sabbath has become just another day off, a holiday, a time to get caught up on our yard work.

Disagree with me if you want, but I think that if the world was to revert to a remembrance and observance of the commandments, and specifically of the Sabbath Day, a lot of the world's ills would "magically" disappear. The heavens would open up on our crops, the hungry would be filled, wars would cease and men's anger would abate. The Spirit of the Lord would again be poured out without measure on this chosen country, and on the world.

In D&C 82, verse 10, the Lord states that, "I am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." Couple that verse with the verses from Leviticus and you have a perfect cure for this world's ills. A righteous world receiving blessings from the Lord on a daily basis. Constant communication with our Heavenly Father. Inspiration and revelation being poured out without mixture.

I mean, it's worth a try, right? Nothing else seems to be working. As long as we continue to rely on the arm of man, we're going to remain exactly how we are now, and maybe worse. If we turn to the Lord, we have His promise that He'll help us.

And who better to have over a barrel than the Lord?

King's Dominion II

King's Dominion is my kind of place.

Especially when it's overcast, slightly rainy, and humid.

The reason for that is because that kind of weather scares off a lot of people.

Such was the case on Saturday when we packed up the car, braved I-95 (crawling), and went down to Richmond.

Usually I don't like Richmond much, though my nephew Michael seemed to like it on his mission. It's too hot for me, and way too humid. But if you're going to ride the Intimidator, you've got to take Mohammad to the mountain.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this weekend, as I was too busy riding the rides. Besides, it was sprinkling just a tad for some of the day, and I didn't want my camera getting all messed up. Suffice it to say that the picture of my sweet wife above (on The Avalanche) was my assessment of the day, too.

We rode all of the biggies. The Dominator, The Intimidator, The WindSeeker, The Grizzly, The Hurler, The Avalanche, Flight of Fear, The Shockwave, The Anaconda, The Berserker and yes, The Crypt. All fabulous rides. Just above is a video of Jacob's car going by on The Avalanche. You can get an idea of how fast it goes from that.

To the left is a shot I took from about the same place, of Hannah and Gammy's car going by. If you blow it up so you can see them really well (second car, from Germany), you'll see that Gammy's eyes are shut tight. The thing I noticed about the rides on Saturday is that they go the same speed and go to the same place whether you close your eyes or not. Sorry Gammy.

For those of you who don't know, Sofia is back living with us now. She's staying until August 23rd, when she'll go home to Spain. She came and lived with us last summer as a foreign exchange student. This summer she just decided to come back and spend some time with us. She went with us to King's Dominion, too. I think that by the end of the day she was pretty worn out...just like the rest of us.

All good things must come to an end, I guess, and all in all it was a great day. My favorite ride was either The Intimidator (steep ascent, 85 degree fall, 2G's and then zero-G's made me see stars, literally) or The Dominator (which I wrote about last time). I also liked Flight of Fear (0-60 in about two seconds and the whole ride is in the dark). But I think if you asked Hannah which one she liked the best, it would either be The Avalanche or the one pictured at the left. It was called The Scrambler...a family ride...and yes, it was one of the best. Those oldies but goodies are always some of the best, aren't they?